The Health Crossroad with Dr. Doug Elwood and Dr. Tom Elwood

Dan Lambert is the CEO of boardvitals.com, an Education Technology company focused on improving Physician Training. He is an experienced software developer and holds over fifteen software and telecom patents. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 2011, Dan co-founded a venture backed company in retail, which had a successful exit that same year. In this interview, Dan provides insights into the patent process, his switch into healthcare from other industries, and meaningful use.

Dr. Deborah Scharf is a clinical health psychologist and behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation. She also is a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her work addresses issues related to tobacco use, treatment, and policy; innovations in electronic real-time data capture; behavioral and primary health care delivery systems; and evaluation of, and technical assistance for, civilian and military behavioral health programs. Her research focus embraces the areas of Mental Health and Illness; Primary Care; Program Evaluation; Tobacco and Smoking; and Traumatic Brain Injury. She holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Her bachelor’s degree is from McGill University and along with her doctorate, her master’s degree was obtained at the University of Pittsburgh. In this interview, Dr. Scharf discusses many issues around mental health including several initiatives designed to close the gap between focus on the mind and the body in patients with mental health disease.

Daniel Lieber is a research scientist and an entrepreneur. He completed his PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University where he studied mitochondrial metabolism and bacterial genomics. There, he integrated computational and experimental methods to discover the function of uncharacterized proteins and genetic variants in human disease. Daniel completed his undergraduate training at Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude in Molecular Biology with certificates in Quantitative and Computational Biology and Finance and authored his thesis on protein motifs at the Lewis-Sigler Institute of Integrative Genomics. Daniel has received many awards including National Merit Scholar and has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has taken his extensive knowledge and experience to found Genterpret, a company dedicated to connecting patients to researchers to drive personalized medicine.In this interview, Daniel discusses his passion for genetics which began in the shadow of the famed NIH and both the challenges and opportunities the field presents today. He also talks about this time at Blueprint Health and provides advice for other entrepreneurs.

Dr. Thomas Smalling serves as Executive Director of the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) where he is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the organization and all aspects of the corporation’s operations. He has worked in the respiratory care profession since 1987 and joined the respiratory care program faculty at Stony Brook University in 1995, where he also served as Director of Clinical Education. Prior to his appointment as CoARC’s Executive Director, he served as a board member for four years, working primarily on accreditation standards for polysomnography. He previously served for a number of years on the Board of Directors of the New York State Society for Respiratory Care (NYSSRC), including the position of President and was a Delegate for the American Association for Respiratory Care. His doctorate is from New York University.

Victor Wang grew up pushing the boundaries of computerized science. Starting at age 6 when he was programming role-playing games for MS-DOS, Victor never turned back. He received a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of British Columbia, majoring in Mechatronics Engineering and minoring in Commerce, and was awarded the Wesbrook Scholar designation. After working stints in telemarketing, environmental research, aerospace manufacturing, particle physics, oil sands, medical robotics, and the military as an officer, Victor won the Canada Graduate Scholarship and earned his Master of Science at MIT. There, he researched human-machine interaction for the NASA space telerobotics program while serving as one of the premier leaders in graduate student government. Considering his grandmother in Taiwan who became depressed due to being home-bound and living alone, Victor started GeriJoy to bring joy to seniors and families caring for older loved ones. Victor is widely recognized as a senior care technology innovator and thought leader, and has spoken at the Connected Health Symposium, CES Silvers Summit, TEDMED, and other national events. In this interview, Victor provides a first-hand look at what he is accomplishing with Gerijoy and the challenges associated with seniors and elder-care living, as well as other tremendous insights into the health landscape today, plus shares his incredible background. Alzheimers and senior care are so important in health today, as is loneliness, and Victor is tackling these problems and more head on using innovation in a truly unique way merging technology and pet therapy.

Kathryn Harris is a third year Doctorate of Physical Therapy student at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and is scheduled to graduate in May 2014. She has a bachelors of science degree in Health and Exercise Science from the University of Oklahoma and she currently holds many leadership positions across campus and within the community. Kathryn is part of an emerging group of young professionals who eventually will play an important role in delivering health care services and in making improvements in the way that care is delivered. As an individual who soon will be entering the field of physical therapy, she represents a new generation of health professionals who will bring their knowledge to the forefront in addressing the nation’s health care challenges and problems.

Edward Seguine is the CEO of Clinical Ink, a pioneer in the development of electronic source record solutions for clinical research. Prior to Clinical Ink, Mr. Seguine was the General Manager of Medidata’s Trial Planning product suite after serving as the CEO of Fast Track Systems before that company was acquired by Medidata.Mr. Seguine began his pharma career at Eli Lilly where he helped establish Lilly’s venture capital groups e.Lilly and Lilly Bioventures. Mr. Seguine has participated as an active board member and advisor for numerous start-up companies as well as CDISC. In addition, he has actively collaborated with leading academic institutions (Tufts CSDD, MIT, Duke) to develop, publish and present research into novel approaches to improving clinical development. Ed earned a BS in Finance from Brigham Young University, an MBA from Indiana University, and spent several years early in his career as the VP Finance of a start-up defense technology company. In this interview, Ed discusses the $7-10B industry of monitoring research sites for clinical trials, as well as the broader context and process of this dynamic and critical space including Meaningful Use.

Gil Addo has been involved with health in a few different areas and has amassed years of experience in both healthcare delivery and information technology. Over the last few years, he worked at Putnam Associates, a pharma consultancy, where he designed payer and market access strategies for Fortune 500 companies. He is currently running his own company, RubiconMD, where he responsible for vision, strategy, and growth and which started based on his own personal experiences in the healthcare system. Gil holds a BS in economics and biomedical engineering from Yale and an MBA from Harvard. In this interview, Gil discusses how he initially got interested in health with a touching personal story and how he has used his knowledge to found a company dedicated to improving the system. Gil also walks us through the importance of payers and market access, as well as personalized medicine.

This specific topic update is on robotics and health. Robots are a prominent feature of contemporary life. They are used in many fields, including industry, medicine, agriculture, and the military. This podcast is about the use of robots in health care. An important kind of robotic intervention is being employed in the performance of hysterectomies, along with gastric cancer, colorectal, prostate, and mitral valve surgery. This podcast will not address the surgical branch of robotics. Instead, the focus will be restricted to non-surgical applications and includes topics such as the use of robotics for seniors, those who benefit from robotics as companions, and rehabilitation robotics.

William Ashton is a former Fortune 100 senior executive with more than 28 years experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. He retired as a Vice President at Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm. He then joined the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia where he became the founding dean of the Mayes College of Business and Health Care Policy and later was appointed Senior Vice President for External Affairs. He presently is a Principal at the Harris Consulting Group LLC, is on the board of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. His degrees are from the California University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh. In this interview, Bill speaks about growing up in a family of coalminers and how he got started in health, as well as his insights into challenges and opportunities within the system.